Social Media

YouTube Ain't Screwed

Om Malik asked the question as to whether GooTube is in trouble, now that the mainstream media seems to be pulling out of their sandbox and setting up their own, on the heels of NBC pulling their content and putting it all on Hulu. Podcasting News put out a well thought response contending that Google and YouTube are about to be in serious trouble. This, of course, is dead wrong. Aside from the fact that official sources of content prohibiting embedded video sites from showing their content never stopped it from showing up there in the first place, all mainstream media efforts to create their own social networks and communities around their own sites and points of distribution are doomed to failure because the mainstream media simply doesn't get it when it comes to online distribution. Truth be told, very few online independent media producers truly understand how to fully harness the distribution channels available to them when it comes to video content.

Fortunately for you, I have all the answers.

There are (I'm sure this is the exact number at last count) one gazillion social networks and embedded video sites to upload and distribute your digital media. This goes double for online video. This doesn't take into account blog syndication of embedded videos and podcast feeds. I'm often asked by folks looking to start in online video ventures what the best way is to distribute their video (i.e., podcast, embedded, if embedded which one, etc). My answer, in almost all cases is yes. To everything.

In our on-demand world, the entertainment consumer has very little brand loyalty to a network or channel. They may have favorite niches, favorite programs, and favorite actors and entertainers, but I challenge you to go and find me anyone out there (who doesn't work for NBC) to tell me exactly how much they love everything that NBC puts out there.

My point being, the more places you can find a show, the better chance it has to becoming a hit, online or off.

Malik asserts: "It is my belief that these companies are in the business of content, not distribution." Podcasting News points to Ask A Ninja as an example of how Malik is wrong, saying "that on the Internet, publishing is distribution." While they may be right on the nature of internet publishing, it does not go to prove that content production is the same as distribution. How else can you explain the meteoric rise of TubeMogul, a company created solely to solve the nightmare of content distribution for the independent producer? In the time it takes for you to upload your video and hit submit, they've put your video on a plethora of video sharing community sites, and track your stats for you.

Why would you want to put it everywhere? On the internet, publishing may be distribution, but wide distribution is marketing. Uploading exclusively to one particular community, be it big or small, comes with a unique set of issues. If you upload to a small site, you're playing in a little fishbowl where your content may be king of the small pond, but at the end of the day, it's still a small pond. On the other hand, if you upload to a YouTube, Metacafe or other such site, it doesn't matter how great your content is if you are an unknown producer. If you don't have a dedicated team of monkeys working around the clock to comment on and watch your video constantly until it hits one of the top lists, you're going to be lost in the ocean of white noise until your lucky break.

If I were in charge of setting up the online distribution ventures for NBC, this is how I'd approach distribution, and then have all my branding lead back into a video podcast feed, again, like Ask A Ninja. Looking at the YouTube numbers for a second, viewership numbers range from 200,000 views up to 3.5 million views. Those numbers vary widely, and its quite easy to say what else does Mr. Ninja need but YouTube? How would you like 115,287 (numbers pulled today from PodFeet's ranking page) more guaranteed views for every episode? Combining the known numbers for YouTube downloads, the unknown numbers for Revver, Metacafe and other community downloads, and the podcast downloads, we're starting to end up with a respectable size audience. As a basis for comparison, Ask A Ninja receives roughly the same viewership per episode as the average Disney cable TV show, according to Nielsen's ratings.

Back on point, though: Is YouTube in trouble? And is the Hulu the move forward NBC needs to increase online viewership? In my opinion, a definitive no is the answer here to both questions. By limiting the number of eyeballs NBC programming is being exposed to, they're limiting the amount of marketing available to them for the various NBC brands and niches. People either go to brands they remember (and who outside the tech blogging community is going to remember Hulu?), and places to find niches they like (ala YouTube, et al). Meanwhile, there is no other prevailing reasons to assume that the average YouTube surfer is going to tire of lonelygirl re-runs and funny clips of monkeys doing dirty things, and those folks will be clicking on something in the stead of NBC-generated content.

To me, it just sounds like an excellent opportunity for other producers to ramp up distribution efforts of their productions.

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